A Story of Becoming of Kora and Persephone - Chapter 1
by WidgetWrites
Summary: Kora's Goddess coronation is coming where she will prove that she is meant to join her Mother as a Goddess of nature and the harvest. However, something is gnawing inside of her telling her that she needs to see outside of their natural world. This is the start of our story.
1. Chapter 1

A story of becoming

Kora and Persephone

Mamma tried to keep me like my names' sake for as long as she could, and for a while I didn't see anything wrong with being like I was, a maiden. She raised me to be like the plants around her, healthy and vibrant and pure. I was unaware of anything outside of our nature and I liked it that way. There was much to learn. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to be here forever anyway so I was content with enjoying what time here I had. I didn't mind that Mamma tried to keep me away from others, I honestly didn't notice it half the time. It was only much later that I learned that it wasn't everyone but a certain few that she tried her best to guard me from.

Powerful as she was, she couldn't be with me always and so one day she brought Athena to watch over and teach me while she was needed in Olympus. She was so different from Mamma, I could feel the cold and collected barrier just beneath her friendly exterior. Back straight with her piercing eyes that held both questions and answers but never judgment, I was intrigued with her at once. I don't fully understand why it was so clear to me how she saw the world differently than Mamma but my respect fell right in line with her as I treaded by her side. I held onto everything she said, well almost. As time went on the unnamed voice in my head, the same one that told me I would eventually see beyond these gardens, grew anxious and fidgety and I pushed Athena to tell me more about her world. At first, she just watched me, calculating something unseen, before she turned me away. It didn't matter how much time passed, I was never able to chip away at her to reveal my answers. The nervous energy in my mind eventually grew into my limps and I would find myself seeking out Artemis's company. She shared this wilderness with Mamma and me. As Mamma took care of nature Artemis took care of the animals within it. She also would come and go as she pleased which would slowly tug at me more and more over time. She was so wild and lively compared to Mamma and Athena. She knew how to make me smile and how to get me to run. We would sometimes find ourselves in 'trouble' but looking back on it I use that word in the mildest manner possible. We must have been in keeping with what Mamma really wanted even if it seemed like a big deal to me at the time.

Even with this growing voice in my mind I would turn to whatever my mother said and trust in her word that I was meant to be a Goddess of the harvest with her. Whenever Artemis said she would be leaving for a while to be with the humans I pretended like I didn't care, even if that was only half way true. Mamma said I didn't need to meet the mortals to do what I needed to do in life. The first time I heard her say it it had sat wrong with me but I couldn't understand a reason to disagree with her. I'm honestly not sure what changed everything one day. I just remember the first time I watched Artemis go. Usually I would tend to my flowers and let us go our separate ways for the time being, she would be there then she wasn't. It was never a big deal, but this time was different, and she noticed.

"Kora, you waited for me to come back?" Artemis had found me sitting in the field where I sat unmoved from where I'd seen her off.

"What is out there Artemis." My voice was raw, the words had lain like a bolder in my throat and had hurt as I push them out, particularly since they were the next words I had spoken after her goodbye.

"The rest of the world Core." She said like a single drop in the ocean.

"Will you show me?" I tried not to sound like I was pleading. My body was shaking slightly, and I couldn't understand why.

"And risk never seeing you again the second Demeter finds out?" she replied jokingly.

"Artemis," I began.

"Your mom and Athena will do worse than kill me if I try to sneak you away. They will notice the second you are gone." Her tone was quick and harsh but did not hurt.

"I know I am asking a lot." I said.

"You're asking for something I never thought you would ask for." She said gently.

"I think I have been trying to ask it for a while know I just didn't know how to say it." The words moved slowly out of me but they felt right so I didn't hold them back.

"You've wanted to leave here?" She asked.

"Not forever, Goddess no, I just. I can tell that there is more. Artemis, I need you to listen to me, please, okay? I feel like there are more than the flowers, the trees, the pollen, and leaves. I can _feel_ something that doesn't reach to here but does exist out there." The look that Artemis gave me ran shivers down my spine. It was almost as cool and calculating as the one Athena would give me but something about it was sharper.

"Yeah I get that feeling." She said steadily without blinking. I got the feeling that she was looking at me in a different way than she ever had before which made me feel different in turn. I wanted to look around for a reflection to see if something about me really had changed. "Have you said anything about this to Athena?"

"Um, well, no. I am afraid that she would tell Mamma. I know she wouldn't understand."

"Kora, give me a bit to think this over, but listen to me," Artemis came over and sat next to me, arm on my shoulder, "I get it."

"I know that I am asking a lot." I had no idea what consequences would come or what I would find. Mamma made the outside world seem drab and painful. Unnecessary and unrelatable.

"Come on little posy. I would've been a little surprised if you never asked at all. Just do me something in return." I looked at her. "Tell Athena what you told me tonight, okay? She is the Goddess of wisdom after all, I'm sure she can help you somehow. Besides, you never know. Your Goddess coronation is this next moon. You are bound to be feeling some new things." I agreed and for the rest of the night we joked and mapped the constellation in the night sky before she left to join her twin in the moon. I stayed until I got the chance to watch the edge of the sky shift colors. I didn't budge until the edge of the sun threated the turn of the world. I felt the warmth of the light hit my ankle as I shut the door to my studies. Instead as I watched the floating dust, I daydreamt about my Goddess coronation where I would prove that I was meant to be a Harvest Goddess with Mamma. When the rest of my life would begin.


	2. Chapter 2

A story of becoming

Kora and Persephone

If you listen quietly enough during the night you will be able to hear the music of plants. I assure you this isn't something only the God's can do. You might think that plants do their best work during the day but that's not true. While they collect their resources during the day it is at night when it is dark that they turn those gathered into their being. It is quite an amazing feeling being a part of that dance. With practice you can learn to feel as I have felt joining with flowers, vines, trunks, and stems as they create their life. Its almost like they create their own internal sun made of ecstasy and nutrients as they process everything they took in. When the Sun disappears, they made their own. Looking back on this now I feel like I always knew where I was going to belong.

I would like to watch the sunrise somedays but not always. Watching the colors shift, the plants unfold, it was always the most glorious sight but the Sun would always be so bright that I would turn from it to watch how everything else reacted to it instead. Sometimes I would prefer to just close my eyes and listen to the world wake up. After last night with Artemis I did just that. My beautiful world sang in my ears and I recognized the different voices with glee. Once the Sun had decided on the color it was going to be after its grand flare back into existence, I let the more mellow tones warm my skin without harming my eyes as I stepped back outside. I took a deep breath, there is something always so loving about the scent of nature. I could feel Mamma's dedication here. I massaged my feet into the soil and took stock of what minerals and nutrients lay below. As I walked around, I listened to what was wanted and needed from my plants and gave what I could. Often it was not too difficult and many plants would even reach for me as I would them, awaiting each other. I knelt near a patch of root vegetables to listen more closely to what they needed when a scent of freshly cooked sweet bread came from behind.

"What do they need?" Demeter asked.

"It's always a little harder with these ones." I replied.

"Close your eyes, feel their hunger like your own. What do you want?" Mamma knelt beside me, put her hands on my shoulders and held me tight. I felt what was touching the Earth grow ever so slightly warmer and began to buzz. My hips and pelvis, thighs to my knees and calves, the round swell of my ankle and collective of small bones in my feet felt like they were trying to draw something in but couldn't. The hunger was a deep need.

"There is something missing in the soil. Should we tilt the Earth?" I looked towards Mamma for answers.

"That will not be enough I am afraid." She said simply, but I could hear the tiredness in her voice.

"Mamma?" She kissed my forehead before she took my hand and stood up. A strong inner warmth radiated from deep inside her hand which made the skin of her hand feel ghostly. Although she wasn't gripping hard now it still held such force that I was sure nothing could escape her grip should she wish it. I liked it to how the Earth holds so tightly to plants to keep them upright. A true home of which to always grow from.

"What they need is a storm, nitrates and nitrogen." Her voice was gentle she was not looking at me but at the plants veiling our feet. I turned my senses inner to remember the feeling of those nutrients.

"I'm not sure, um." I tried to focus as best as I could. Mamma turned to watch me.

"Like this." She took my hand and I felt her energy enter into me, guiding me. "Do you see the geometrical shape it takes? That's right, focus until it becomes clearly defined. What do you feel you are receiving from this? Now give that feeling." Behind my closed eyes, upon a blue almost black background I saw a singular golden honeycomb shape fixed with a line to one blue circle with other lines that once spun reviled a connection to six other circles. I feel the buzzing again and I felt incredibly energized as I watched. The golden honeycomb began to violently throb until one last bright pulse blinked out the image. I snapped back to the present moment with Mamma. "Yes, it is a bit of a difficult one. Don't worry, this time the cycles of life will provide it for us all." Which could only mean one thing.

"We are expecting a lightening storm." The energies of storms were always amazing to witness. Each one with such a personality and unknowable pattern of behavior. I had only started to learn how to interact with them. Mamma had started me by just watching and getting to know them when I was very young. She had let me do smaller ones recently that were necessary, she said I wasn't ready for anything with a bigger energy then what I was able to extend. Storms without guides would never listen to something that wasn't equal to the task and Mamma said I would get hurt needlessly. I believed her. I loved watching Mamma work one. It was such magic to behold. She would start out feet in the Earth, hands in the sky like the tallest tree, still. The wind around her would listen to her call and swirl around, clouds would let themselves be taken up, the Sun released its duty, and the Earth became ready. Slowly she would turn with the elements and no matter how chaotic her movements got, earth and rain and lightning flying, she always seemed in control like a steady, quiet eye of the storm. But she wouldn't be doing it this time, I could tell.

"Who?" I asked. Demeter stood up straighter and looked down her nose at me, her voice hard and smooth.

"Your father has oftered since your coronation is coming. To ' _give us a chance to focus on preparing for the festivities'."_ My eyes widened. I had hardly any chances to study his energy. I had hardly known him at all. I had only seen him less than a handful of times in my life let alone met him. Mamma dropped my hands and started to walk back to our home. "He thinks its so simple to conjure a storm." As she addressed me again, she threw her voice over her shoulder. "Why do we need storms?"

"To re-energize the soil, to return what has come to the end of its cycle to the Earth and to clear the energy from that which would let unhealthy energy grow." I lowly sang out to the flowers around my knees at they leaned into my path, their petals gleaming with color at I brushed them. The sparkles in their petals winking back.

"Wonderful, now what is a healthy storm like." Mamma was talking a little bit too loud as if it wasn't a question for me but I answered anyway.

"Well one that does just those things. An unhealthy one would be greedy and destroy that which doesn't need to be taken." Mamma stopped at our white clay home. She turned around to me and opened her arms wide, her smile just as large.

"Well done my dear, I am so proud of you." I ran into her embrace. The flowers, vines, and other plants around our entrance grew until they were larger than normal, until we let go. Large leaves, almost larger than my body, had spread out above us giving the feeling of walking into a jungle as we turned inside. The ceilings in our home were low, light brown, and heavily textured. The walls curved and split at odd times in what would seem like endless new corridors. It felt like a perfect burrow and often when Artemis had been over, I would find more animals than usual around. Today several small but colorful birds were twittering in a bush by a window, a bunny nibbled on a root on the other side of the house, and a hedgehog mixed with a pig like creature the size of a small dog grunted as it waddled towards the back of our home. Mamma went smoothly from plant to plant, watering and speaking love to them. A snake slithered down from above our door lightly onto my shoulders and hands happy for some more warmth. Mamma needed a second to enjoy being home after going to Olympus. I followed the burrow dog as it waddled towards the kitchen and grew a truffle for him before grabbing an apple for myself and heading to my room. As the snake adjusted around my neck my mind traveled over thoughts of the chance to get to watch Zeus in action.

The thought was tantalizing. What would his lightening look like, behave like, feel like? Surly it wouldn't be anything like Mothers. And his wind? How would the air he conjured dance? I couldn't imagine what it would look like so I could only guess as I absently stroked the snakes head and ate my apple waiting for Mamma to finish up so we could get started.


End file.
